Darrow Miller and Friends

Sacred & Secular Divide

The Lordship of Christ Over All

The first of our DNA Core Beliefs is the “Jesus is King.” It is first, because it is the very foundation for everything we believe, write and teach. As pastor Barry Seagren says in this powerful sermon, the Lordship of Christ is:

. . . one of those things that no [sincere Christian] can object to. No one believes in the Lordship of Christ over half of life. But it is not as straightforward as it may seem. Why not? Because in Western culture there is a dichotomy, a sharp division which has affected us deeply.

The most common is the division between the sacred and the secular. Religious or spiritual things are on one side of the line; normal, everyday matters are on the other. Another way to express the split is the private versus the public. Religion is fine, but it’s a private matter, and it must be kept private. To let it impinge on the public sphere is known as “shoving your religion down someone’s throat.” Christopher Reeve, the actor, made this comment about stem cell research: When matters of public policy are debated, no religions should have a place at the table. In other words, you can have your religion, if you need that sort of thing, but keep it to yourself. Reeve’s statement is a big con, because what it actually means is that only one religion gets a place at the table, namely secular humanism. To give another example, perhaps someone has said to you, “Well, that may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.”

This dichotomy is what keeps Christianity boxed up to a tiny religious area, totally private and completely innocuous and irrelevant. This is what strips the Gospel of its power to permeate the whole of our lives, and strips it of its power to challenge and redeem the whole of our culture.

Well said. Read the rest of his sermon here. It is well worth your time!

-Scott D. Allen

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About 
Scott Allen serves as president of the DNA secretariat office. After serving with Food for the Hungry for 19 years in both the United States and Japan, working in the areas of human resources, staff training and program management, he teamed up with Darrow Miller and Bob Moffitt to launch the DNA in 2008. Scott is the author of Beyond the Sacred-Secular Divide: A Call to Wholistic Life and Ministry and co-author of several books including, As the Family Goes, So Goes the Nation: Principles and Practices for Building Healthy Families. His most recent book is Why Social Justice is Not Biblical Justice. Scott lives with his wife, Kim, in Bend, OR. They have five children.
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